


all things sweet and small

by lotts (LottieAnna)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Getting Together, Kid Fic, M/M, Wishbabies, adventures in babysitting, truly ridiculous levels of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-04-28 17:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14454705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts
Summary: Someone decided it was a good idea to leave William Nylander in charge of a baby.





	all things sweet and small

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [carissima](https://archiveofourown.org/users/carissima/pseuds/carissima) in the [PuckingRare2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PuckingRare2018) collection. 



> IF YOU FOUND THIS THROUGH GOOGLING, KNOW ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY PERSONALLY, OR ARE MENTIONED YOURSELF: please, please click away. This is a work of fiction and nothing written in this story is true. Any accurate information used in this story is publicly available information about public figures, the rest is made up, 100%.
> 
>  **Prompt:**  
>  kid fic. except, neither of them actually has a kid.

 Someone decided it was a good idea to leave William Nylander in charge of a baby.   

Zach does not think this is a great idea, and Willy would probably agree with him, if his current state of disarray is anything to go by.

“Whose—” Zach starts, then he closes his mouth, because there’s a non-zero chance that it’s Willy’s kid, and he doesn’t want to make him explain that if he’s not ready.

It’s not a very large chance, but still. Willy sleeps around, so—

Well, Zach’s not actually sure that Willy sleeps around, because he doesn’t really get involved in his teammates’ sex lives, because he is not Mitchell Marner, but he has to imagine that he does. He’s got the kind of face that people want to go home with.

Willy’s got the kind of _everything_ that people want to go home with, if he’s being honest.

Zach is probably getting off track.

“It’s a long story,” Willy says.

Zach can feel his eyes go wide, before he can stop them.

“It’s not—” Willy’s face turns red, and he rolls his eyes, probably in an attempt to not look flustered. “Jesus, stop that, I don’t have a secret daughter.”

“It’s a girl?” Zach says.

Willy looks at him like he’s being ridiculous. “Of course she’s a girl.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?”

“Her outfit?”

Zach looks at the purple onesie. “It’s pretty gender-neutral.”

“It’s got bows on the toes,” Willy says.

“Yeah, like most sneakers,” Zach says, and then he shakes his head. “Why do you have a baby, Will?”

“Because I do,” Willy says.

“That’s a terrible answer.”

“Well, I can’t go into detail,” Willy says. “I’m covering for a friend, okay?”

“What friend?”

“I can’t _say,”_ Willy says, exasperated. “Can you just, like, help?”

“What?” Zach says.

“Help,” Willy says, and then he points to the baby. “With her.”

“Why would I know anything about babies?” Zach asks.

“You have siblings,” Willy says.

“Your siblings are younger than mine,” Zach says. “Also, you have sisters. I don’t have any sisters.”

“She’s a baby, they’re all the same.”

“Then why was I supposed to guess she was a girl?”

“That’s not the point here,” Willy says. “You write kid’s books, so you know more about kids than I do.”

“Kids who are old enough to read, maybe,” Zach says.

“Your books have pictures!”

“And words,” Zach says. “Dude, I’m as lost as you are.”

Willy groans, and the baby starts to cry.

“Please, Viv, I’m begging you, shut the fuck up,” Willy says.

“Language,” Zach says, going over to her on instinct. He likes babies well enough, thinks they’re cute, or whatever, but a crying baby is the least cute kind of baby. He prefers to interact with smiling, round babies, that just make grabby hands at random shit and clap at absolutely nothing. “Her name is Viv?”

“Vivian, yeah,” Willy says. “She’s hungry, but I don’t know what babies eat.”

Zach gives Willy a look. “Baby food, Will.”

“But what flavor?” Willy whines. “What if she doesn’t like carrots? Or peas?”

“I don’t think she has a really discerning palette. She’s an infant,” Zach says.

“When babies don’t like their food, they start throwing it,” Willy says. “It’s gonna be a mess.”

“Well, babies are messy,” Zach says.

“Thought you didn’t know anything about babies,” Willy grumbles.

Zach rolls his eyes. “I know the basics.”

“God, why did I agree to do this?” Willy says, and Zach figures it’s rhetorical, so he doesn’t answer, just focuses his attention on getting Viv to calm down.

“Shhh,” Zach says, which doesn’t really do much. He turns to Willy. “Do you want me to go get baby food?”

“I was gonna get it myself, but I didn’t wanna, like, carry her for that long,” Willy says.

“She’s in a carrier.”

“I know, but— babies,” Willy says, doing a vague, frantic hand gesture. “They’re tiny and delicate, it’s terrifying.”

“Yeah, we’re hockey players, we’re not cut out for delicate stuff,” Zach says. “Give me a grown man who could beat me up over a miniature person any day.”

“Miniature person,” Willy echoes, and then he laughs, surprised, and it’s the most normal sound Zach’s heard from him all afternoon.

“So,” Zach says. “Baby food?”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Willy says. “Diapers too, probably.”

“Did her parents not give you any guidelines whatsoever?” Zach says. As a rule, he doesn’t judge parenting, because he’s never had an actual child, but he’s babysat enough that he knows there’s usually some discussion of how to care for the kid beforehand.

“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Willy says, and it’s his turn to try and calm down Vivian as Zach stands up to get his shoes back on.

“Oh,” Zach says, furrowing his brow. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Willy says, reassuring. “Just— gotta watch a baby for an hour, or something.”

“And you called me to help?”

Willy shrugs. “I dunno, you’re good at— like, things.”

“Wow, real specific,” Zach says, and as Willy makes cooing noises at Viv, she starts to calm down at last. “Looks like you’re pretty good at things too.”

“Nah, just a coincidence,” Willy says, but he’s smiling at Viv, not looking away from her.

……

When Zach gets back, Willy’s taken Vivian out of the carrier, and he’s still making very cute noises, this time mixing in very cute faces.

The whole picture is, generally, very cute.

“I think I’ve got the hang of this, a little bit,” Willy says, and then he smiles, and Zach smiles, and Viv smiles, and for a moment, everything is calm and nice and smiles.

Then, Vivian starts to make some noises, before she proceeds to throw up all over Willy, and the mood changes considerably.

“Never mind,” Willy says, frozen in shock, so Zach comes through with the assist and carefully lifts Vivian out of his arms. “I’m never doing anything nice for anyone ever again.”

“Go shower,” Zach says. “I can take care of cleaning her up.”

“I thought she was hungry,” Willy says, apparently still horrified by his current situation. “Viv, you _betrayed_ me.”

Vivian just starts grabbing at Zach’s nose, which Zach halfheartedly dodges.

“She says sorry,” Zach deadpans. “Dude, shower.”

“Right,” Willy says, and then he wanders off.

Zach can handle cleaning a baby. He lies her down on a bed of paper towels, because he hadn’t thought to get a diaper mat, or whatever, and cleans her off, which is easy, because she’s mostly clean, and what didn’t end up on Willy ended up on her outfit, which should probably be thrown out, but he rinses it off and puts it in a plastic bag, just in case. She doesn’t seem to be, like, distressed, so Zach figures it’s normal baby grossness, and not an actual sick child.

Then, he tickles her tummy, because she really is a very cute baby, crying and puking aside.

……

Willy’s still in the shower when the doorbell rings.

“Will?” Zach says, knocking on the bathroom door. “Someone’s here.”

“You can get it, I’ll be out in a sec,” Willy says, yelling to be heard over the sound of the shower spray.

As it turns out, it’s Mo.

“Hey,” Mo says, his eyes going wide, like it’s suspicious for him to be at their teammate’s apartment, especially considering he used to live in this building, and still spends a considerable amount of time at Jake’s place, two floors up.

“Hi,” Zach says. “Uh, what’s up?”

“I’m here— uh, Gards says there’s—” Mo starts awkwardly, which is a very strange and un-Mo-like thing, but he stops mid-sentence, and his mouth goes into an o-shape.

Zach turns to see what Mo’s staring at, and—

Right. Viv.

“That’s—” Zach starts to explain, but Mo just walks past him, and Zach feels strangely protective, like he should stop him, but he doesn’t have any actual reason to.

“There’s my girl,” Mo says, in what is distinctly baby talk, and it takes a second for the words to hit Zach.

“She spit up all over her outfit before,” Zach says, not really sure if he should ask questions or not. “It’s probably gonna be a mess to clean—”

“Oh, guess we’re gonna have to buy her all sorts of pretty new clothes, huh?” Mo says, lifting her out of the carrier and cradling her in his arms. “You want that? You wanna go shopping with your daddies?” He lifts her up until their noses are touching. “Yes you do, yes you do!”

Vivian claps, delighted, though Zach’s pretty sure she doesn’t really get fashion yet. If Mo’s personal style is gonna be a model for that, she probably won’t ever really get fashion, unless matching golf outfits with your best friend suddenly become trendy.

“Oh, thank god,” Willy’s voice says, and when Zach turns around, he sees that Willy is wearing literally nothing but a towel, which Zach is really not prepared for. “He found you.”

“Yeah, he’s upstairs,” Mo says. “God, she’s— she’s _perfect.”_

“You’re biased,” Willy says, rolling his eyes.

“Thanks for looking after her, Willy,” Mo says earnestly. “And, uh, you too, Zach.”

“I was just called in for reinforcements,” Zach says.

“Gards didn’t leave me any diapers,” Willy says, crossing his arms. “Hyms saved my ass while he was trying to find you.”

“Well, he did,” Mo says. “I’m sure he wants to see her—”

“Yes, go be gross in your baby daddy’s apartment,” Willy says.

“Aw, nothing can be gross about this little angel,” Mo coos. “Nothing at all.”

“I was literally washing her vomit off my skin five minutes ago,” Willy says.

“Oh, _that’s_ why you were in the shower,” Mo says. “Good, I was about to revoke your babysitting privileges.”

“What did you—” Zach starts, but Willy cuts him off.

“I’m sure you’ll think differently when it’s date night and I live an elevator ride away.”

Mo presses a soft kiss to her forehead. “Alright, Viv, say bye-bye to Willy and Zach.” He gently lifts up her hand, like she’s waving, and Zach waves back, as does Willy.

Once Mo is finally out the door, Willy shuts it behind him, then lets out an exhausted sigh.

“Finally,” he says.

“Uh,” Zach says, because a lot of things just happened, and Willy putting on clothing is not one of them. “Mo and Gards?”

“Wishbaby,” Willy says, by way of explanation.

“Right,” Zach says, even though that doesn’t clear, like, anything up. “Since when?”

“Like, ten minutes before you got here?” Willy says.

“Oh,” Zach says, nodding slowly. “Oh, wow.”

“Yeah,” Willy says.

“So they’re—”

“I’m pretty sure they’re gonna DTR in front of their child,” Willy says. “Gards panicked and left her with me, because he didn’t have a car seat yet and Mo wasn’t picking up his phone.”

“Guess it’s a good thing I bought those diapers,” Zach says.

“They’re gonna have a lot on their minds for the next few days,” Willy says. “She is pretty cute, though.”

“Seriously,” Zach says, and then a thought occurs to him. “Oh my god, are all _three_ of them gonna have matching outfits?”

Willy looks horrified for a second, but then he shakes his head. “No, no, not until she’s old enough to golf.”

“The poor thing,” Zach says. “There are gonna be so many photos.”

“Yeah, guess we’ll have to be the cool uncles,” Willy says.

Zach cracks a smile. “Did you just call me cool?”

“Well, a cool nerd,” Willy says, quickly correcting himself, because it’s his favorite joke to make. It would be annoying, if it didn’t always come with a bona-fide William Nylander grin.

Sure enough, the one he flashes Zach is dazzling, but combined with the fact that his hair looks unfairly good for being only half-dry, and the fact that Zach had to see him being all cute with a baby, and the fact that he’s also _still not wearing clothes,_ Zach’s heart starts doing some pretty unfair things.

“I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing before Gards dumped a baby on you,” Zach says, hoping his voice sounds normal and it’s not too obvious that he’s trying not to stare.

“I wasn’t doing anything in particular,” Willy says. “You wanna stick around?”

And Zach does, and even though a part of his brain is screaming at him that spending any time at all with William Nylander is a bad idea, a much larger, louder part is saying that Willy’s his incredibly good looking friend, and Zach doesn’t have any other plans anyway, so.

“Uh, sure,” Zach says. “You should probably put on clothes, though.”

Willy looks down, totally unembarrassed, which, fair, he doesn’t have anything to be embarrased about. “Oh, yeah, I guess,” he says, like he had actually been planning to spend the rest of the afternoon naked, had Zach not reminded him to put on clothing.

Zach pointedly does not think about Willy wandering around his apartment wearing absolutely no clothing, but when Willy emerges from his bedroom a few minutes later, wearing an old Marlies tee and a pair of sweats, he looks so comfortable that Zach still gets the sense that this is… intimate, somehow.

He doesn’t dwell on it.

Too much.

* * *

So. The baby thing.

Viv is great, and Willy does end up babysitting her a lot, and more often than not, he calls Zach to help him.

They get, like, pretty good at it; neither of them is particularly phased by baby puke, anymore, and they fall into a rhythm when it comes to diaper changes and feeding and stuff, and it becomes a sort of— like, not a bro-night, maybe, because most bro nights don’t involve screaming children, unless your name is Morgan Rielly or Jake Gardiner, but it’s a ritual, and it’s honestly pretty fun.

Babies, when they’re not yours, are, like, pretty chill.

The issue is: it’s starting to feel a little targeted.

Like, Zach knows, logically, that Viv is an infant, so there’s no way she _plans_ to be at her absolute cutest every time she’s in Willy’s lap, but it sure as hell feels that way, because the two of them together are, invariably, adorable beyond belief.

Zach didn’t even know he was into guys being good with kids before Willy happened to him. Like, he’s always known that it’s a thing, but it feels like it’s so amped up with Willy. It plants some uncomfortably domestic fantasies in Zach’s head, like assembling Ikea furniture for their hypothetical shared apartment as they argue about Swedish meatballs, or going grocery shopping and fastidiously taking advantage of every discount, or all sorts of weird, specific, boring stuff that shouldn’t make Zach’s heart flutter, but it does, every damn time.

It takes him. An embarrassing amount of time to figure out why.

It happens when Vivian is sleeping on Willy’s chest, weeks after the whole thing started, because of course it does. Willy’s starting to nod off too, and Zach’s half-tempted to chirp him, but he seems beat, and anyway, the lights are dimmed and _The Little Mermaid_ is almost over. It’s a sleepy time of the evening.

The first realization Zach has is that he doesn’t want to leave, and the second he has is that he wants to stay with Willy, and after that, a billion realizations hit him all at once about _why_ he wants to stay with Willy and _what_ he wants from Willy and how long Willy’s eyelashes look when his face is all serene with sleep, and he just— he freezes, because it’s either that or get up abruptly and end this moment, and Zach can’t even imagine letting this slip away.

Instead, he waits for the movie to end, sits in the dark of the room, watching Willy and Viv and the way they move up and down together as Willy inhales and exhales.

The moment is small, tender, delicate, beautiful, and—above all—completely terrifying.

He doesn’t move until Mo and Gards come back, at which point, Willy groggily gets up from the couch, careful not to wake Viv, and Zach doesn’t linger for too long once she’s left, because Willy’s hair is sleep-rumpled and Zach’s heart is beating way, way too fast.

……

Zach dodges Willy’s babysitting calls for the next week, which he feels mildly bad about, but— he’s processing, alright? That shit’s hard, and even harder when there’s a baby around.   

Not that Zach’s actually doing much in the way of actual processing, but he figures avoidance is one of the natural phases of realizing you’re in love with your impossibly beautiful teammate, probably.

“Hey,” Willy says, in the locker room after practice, exactly a week after Zach’s life falls apart. “You ghostin’, or something?” It sounds like it’s supposed to be a joke, but it doesn’t quite land, and Zach feels the guilt form in his stomach.

“No, sorry,” Zach says. “Just— I’ve been busy.”

“Right,” Willy says, like he’d been expecting that. “Listen, I— we should hang out, tonight. The two of us.”

“Um,” Zach says, “I—”

“I swear, I’m not trying to trick you into babysitting,” Willy says, grinning almost nervously, for some reason. “I just— I wanna hang out with you.”

“Oh,” Zach says.

“So?” Willy says, hopeful, and Zach should probably say no, if he knows what’s good for him, but—

“Sure, yeah,” Zach says, and the grin Willy gives him in response is so brilliant that Zach has to hold back a gasp.

……

Zach is relieved when Willy opens the door to his place and Viv is in his arms.

“I’m so sorry,” Willy says, as Zach gives her a fond hello. “Gards said he and Mo were gonna be back ten minutes ago—”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Zach says, grabbing Viv’s impressively small toes. “It’s been too long, Viv.”

“I swear, this wasn’t on purpose,” Willy says.

Zach takes her out of Willy’s arms, cooing. “Did you miss me?”

“I think she did,” Willy says. “A little bit.”

“Aw, well, I missed her too,” Zach says, and then he turns to Willy, apologetic. “I’m really sorry I disappeared, I didn’t—”

“No, it’s okay, I figured— y’know.” Willy shrugs. “Life happens, people are busy. I just didn’t want you to think—” he’s interrupted by the sound of knocking on the doorframe, and when Zach turns around, he sees Gards, slightly out of breath.

“Hi, sorry,” he says. “Traffic.”

“It’s okay,” Zach says, handing Viv off to him. “I was happy to say hello.”

“And I’m sure she was happy to see you,” Gards says, mostly to Viv. “Alright, boys, have fun on your—”

Willy coughs. “Bye, Jake.”

Gards rolls his eyes, and Zach is, once again, very confused. “Have a fun evening.”

“Bye,” Willy says pointedly, and Zach waves as Jake and Viv head out into the hall, Willy closing the door behind them.

Zach clears his throat, once they’re alone, figuring he should say something to fill the impending awkward silence, but it never comes.

“So, like I was saying before,” Willy says, running a hand through his hair, “I just didn’t want you to think that I was only hanging out with you because I wanted someone to babysit with me, so.”

“What?” Zach says.

“Like, that’s why I thought you went AWOL all week, because you were mad,” Willy says.

“Uh, no,” Zach says. “I was just—”

“Busy, right,” Willy says. He’s rambling, Zach realizes, which isn’t something Zach’s ever seen him do before. “But I was worried, I guess, because— so, like, it was sort of the opposite, y’know? And I didn’t want that plan to backfire—”

“The opposite?”

“Like— I was volunteering to babysit more? Because I wanted to hang out with you?” Willy says, and then he puts his face in his hands. “Which is pretty lame, but, like— I don’t know.”

“We hung out plenty before Viv,” Zach says.

“But that’s the thing,” Willy says. “It was different, and it was just— nice having you around, like, all the time? Which sounds creepy, but—”

“Dude, it’s okay, you don’t have to— I’m not mad,” Zach says. “You don’t owe me an explanation, or whatever—”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do,” Willy says. “I’m just messing up what I _am_ trying to do, is all. Fuck, I thought this would be easier without Viv.”

“Why would that makes a difference?”

“Because you, and her, and— I don’t know, _cute,_ and it’s a lot, okay?” Willy says. “Whatever, I’m sorry I’m making this weird.”

“It’s okay,” Zach says, confused, nervous, and full of something else he refuses to acknowledge, because it reminds him a lot of the beginnings of hope. “Do you wanna, like, get food? Then we can talk once we’ve eaten?”

“No,” Willy groans. “I was supposed to ask _you_ to get dinner.”

“Does it really make a difference?”

“Like—” Willy shakes his head a little, like he’s clearing his mind. “Like. I was supposed to ask you to _get dinner.”_

The emphasis makes the tentative optimism from before stand alert, and Zach’s breath comes in short. “What do you mean by ‘get dinner’, then?”

“I mean, like— I was gonna ask you to go out with me, on a Friday night, to get dinner— are you really not getting this?”

And logically, Zach is, but emotionally and physically, he’s kind of frozen, so he mostly just gapes.

“Are you seriously making me spell this out for you?” Willy says, almost exasperated, and it’s normal enough that it snaps Zach out of his weird mini-trance just in time for Willy’s lips to meet his, which is fortunate, because it means Zach can kiss back immediately.

They make out for a little bit, but the door is still open, and Zach’s pretty sure if they close it, he and Willy might never end up eating, so he makes himself pull away.

“That was so much easier than I thought it would be,” are the first words out of Willy’s mouth, and Zach lets out a laugh, surprised, incredulous, and absolutely delighted.

“Not to burst your bubble, but technically, you haven’t asked me out yet.” Zach’s aware that his face probably looks dumb because he’s grinning so wide, but it’s not like WIlly’s is any better.

“Fuck off,” Willy says, punching him in the arm, but, like, fondly. “Let me buy you dinner, and then we can come back here and make out until the end of time.”

“Unless there’s a babysitting emergency,” Zach says. “We’d probably have to stop then.”

“Mo and Gards can find someone else, if they need,” Willy says. “Tonight we’re gonna have some grown-up fun.”

Zach makes a face at that. “You sound like a new parent when you say that.”

“I’ve been spending too much time around Mo and Gards,” Willy says. “This is what happens when you abandon me for a week.”

“Well, it won’t happen again,” Zach says, and Willy looks so pleased that Zach pretty much has to kiss him again.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to tots, rachel, ciara, and ali for the beta work, thanks to scout for planting mo/gards+wishbaby in my head way back in the day, thanks to op for the prompt, thanks to the pucking rare mods for this incredibly fun challenge!


End file.
